Public relations

This public relations forum will become a regular column in The NA Way Magazine. We hope it will help local members share their public relations experiences. We want to hear and learn from you. What are some of your experiences with building and repairing relationships in your communities? We believe that, by sharing our common challenges and experiences with one another, we will all become better able to provide effective local services. After all, we are each other’s eyes and ears. Listening and learning from each other can only help NA’s message of recovery become more widely known and available.

What do you think?

We can begin this ongoing dialogue by addressing the question, “What is public relations?” For us in NA, it seems helpful to think about public relations as falling under the following three topics:

• Public relations is creating and maintaining relationships with professionals and the general public.

             Public relations is striving to put our best face forward. What is our collective appearance? How do our own behaviors and attitudes affect our relationships with the public? How can we better keep the commitments we make? How can we follow up on requests made to NA more effectively?

• Public relations is openly and willingly listening to constructive comments from professionals about what they need from NA and what they’ve experienced with NA.

             Our goal is to maintain open communication and to be responsive. What are some of your experiences with listening to a member of the public’s perception of NA? How has this helped you in your service efforts?

• Public relations is working with professionals and facilities to rebuild and repair relationships.

             Making amends is not unfamiliar to us. How are we “righting our wrongs” when it comes to public relations? Owning the behavior that caused harm, building credibility by following through with renewed commitment, and becoming open to communication are all ways we can “right our wrongs.” What are some of your experiences with this?

Public relations news from NA World Services

• The Public Relations Handbook was approved at WSC 2006 and replaces A Guide to Public Information. We are readying this handbook for publication and anticipate it will be available to members soon.

• The 2006-2008 conference cycle is well under way, and we are already busy interacting with professionals and members. We recently attended conferences of the National Drug Court Professionals and the Parole and Probation Associations. We anticipate making presentations at conferences of the World Federation of Therapeutic Communities and the Asia Pacific Institute on Addictions. Most recently, we had the privilege of presenting at the American Society of Addiction Medicine conference.

• We are facilitating workshops on the Area Planning Tool and the Public Relations Handbook within the fellowship. With planning, preparation, and training, we will help enhance the credibility of NA’s program of recovery, build solid relationships with professionals, and help addicts find recovery from addiction in Narcotics Anonymous.